EA temporarily disables search and adding friends on Origin

Adding friends on Origin is temporarily disabled. As of Friday, October 19, users will not be able to search and add other players. It is not yet known when the feature will be available again.

In a forum discussion about the issue, one of the users reports that

he gets an empty search list when searching for other players. The user received support from others who had the same problem. Discussion participants expressed annoyance at the failed search function, especially as they hoped to play with friends over the weekend.

For example, user David_H_789 had installed A Way Out, but was unable to add his friend. He complains that customers are not informed in time when an important feature is removed.

EA responds that the feature has been temporarily disabled due to another issue that needs to be resolved. It is not yet known what that other problem is and why it is necessary to take the search function off the air. EA promises to keep users informed of new developments. Since October 20, no new message from the developer has appeared on the forum or through other channels.

Update, 10/23/2018, 09:03: The problem has now been resolved. It is not yet known why the search function has been taken off the air.